Why Today Was a Good Day for Barack Obama

A Ray of Hope

Why today was a good day for Barack Obama.

Every day until the election, Slate will offer up one reason to be optimistic for your candidate.

11 days to go:

Today’s Good News for Obama: The Commerce Department released new figures on U.S. GDP growth on Friday, and they’re surprisingly positive: The American economy grew at a 2 percent rate in the third quarter, 0.2 percent higher than expected. Although that growth might not put a huge dent in unemployment, it confirms the country’s slow but steady recovery from the Great Recession and gives Obama one more nice number to bandy about on the campaign trail. Even better, consumer spending is on the rise, suggesting that Americans are increasingly confident about the state of the economy. Democrats have already highlighted the GDP growth as proof that Obama’s economic policies are working, and they may well help restore voters’ confidence in the president during the final days of the election.

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